Hi all, I am a final year PhD student in life sciences. I submitted an article based on my phd research to a journal for which I had been invited to contributed to a research topic from a conference I attended. I received an email today saying one reviewer had withdrawn from the review process because they felt my article should be rejected on the grounds that no changes I make would improve the article. I was wondering if anyone else has had this experience? I feel extremely de-motivated as the paper makes up a large chunk of my thesis. I feel sick even to look at my thesis now and I am sure I will not pass my PhD if the reviewer thinks my work is not even worthy of corrections. I am so close to submitting but I don't see any point in carrying on now. My supervisors are hands off and do not really let me know when my work is not good enough therefore I cannot even rely on them to help me improve. I suffer mental health problems and feel extremely depressed following this rejection. Thanks for reading, any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Send it another journal, worst case scenario you will get proper feedback!

I'm afraid rejection is part and parcel of academic life.
Pick another journal with a lower impact factor and try again.

Echoing the above really. The last paper I got published, got rejected from about three journals including one in which one reviewer was quite complimentary while the other's feedback simply said "This adds nothing new to the literature". I'd question whether they read it at all.

The reviewer could be anyone - someone who simply is using an excuse because they don't have time to review it; an out of depth PhD student who was given it by their supervisor - What we do know is their opinion isn't worth your time or worry because they couldn't be bothered with constructive criticism.

Take a deep breath and resubmit elsewhere.

Thank you all for your kind responses. I already feel a little better. I think the main reason I am so upset is not the rejection but the fact that the reviewer thought my paper was so bad that they actually withdrew themselves from the review process. Also the journal I submitted to has a transparent review system, so the reviewer was effectively able to "hide" from transparency by rejecting my paper and then withdrawing themselves. I am therefore not entitled to see their name or their comments. As you mention, this also means I got nothing constructive from the process.

You need to stop taking these comments so seriously. They are meaningless in the scheme of things. It's a bunch of academics who are exerting their one area of power under the cloak of anonymity.
My final academic paper was heavily maths based and took me 18 months of living out of my comfort zone to finish the work and write up. It nearly finished me off.
Reviewer A said it was dreadful and looked like a "low level" student had written it. Fortunately for me, his ego forced him to demonstrate his mastery over me by providing many many pages of detailed notes on how HE would have written it. I simply ignored the abuse, thanked him profusely for his kind guidance and made the exact changes he asked for. It was published on the next submission although he did snipe that it had risen to the level of a report written by a "middling" student.
These people and their opinions simply do not matter in the scheme of things. I guarantee that every successful published academic has a series of these types of responses to their own papers. Those dishing out abuse will have had their own papers crucified as well.

Hello! When I got my first journal rejection... I put it on my list of achievements (a geeky looking list I have in an Excel file somewhere). It is part of the academic life and so you've reached a new milestone! It can hurt though and take a while to get over.

It happens to everyone though - even the big names in the field. If it has never happened to someone (or has only happened to them once for example), it simply means that they haven't been in the trade long enough yet!

Glad you're feeling better about things already. Defo submit elsewhere where you get to see comments. I don't think it is normal practice to see the names of the reviewers (that could lead to increased rates of homicide and really isn't that necessary anyway). But the constructive feedback can be super helpful in helping you to improve the paper.

All the best!

I am really sorry to hear about your rejection. I would recommend not taking such comments personally. If you have not received any positive comments from the reviewer feedbacks, then try to find out what the reviewers have actually suggested. Consider it as a fantastic opportunity to add value to your research and to your future thesis. i. We must always welcome feedback, as long as it is constructive. On a related note, most reviewers (at least those associated with good journals) tend to share legitimate input. You can also try asking your peers to go through your paper and share feedback with you. Making the necessary changes and submitting to another journal would be the other possible option. But under no condition should you let this affect your physical or mental health.

I despair at how some reviewers behave. I have not reviewed many papers, but I always try and find something constructive to say. There's only been two papers I have recommended be rejected: one was basically a rant about why it was terrible that a particular paper had not been published quickly enough. The other was a paper about my niche specialism that was really so full of errors that without writing the paper for them it was never going to be accurate.
A recent paper of mine had a similar review - that the paper added nothing and the conclusions were obvious. Other reviewers felt differently. It has just been accepted after quite a struggle.

Hi TQ,
Glad you enjoyed the posts - such a long time ago now!
Thankfully I managed to find a postdoc in 2015. The problem with postdocs that are full-time, you can't do any significant teaching - so I'm stuck for getting a lecturer position once it ends (which is in less than 4 months time!). Plus I haven't really got a good enough publishing record yet.
My postdoc has been a mixed bag. My boss is fantastic, and trying to sort me out with a post for the end of my current contract. The consortium and project leadership is an absolute nightmare.
The academic job market is just so tight at the moment, at least in law. If it wasn't for my boss, I'd be despairing - although there's nothing guaranteed at the moment, so not far off desperation either way!

Wow - time flies! That's interesting. In the social sciences (or at least in my part of it) it seems that lecturers are in demand and experience isn't really needed. Several people I know have walked into teaching jobs. Their problem is that they aren't getting to focus on their research, as the teaching is so all consuming. Glad you have a fantastic boss. Maybe if you get a spare moment you could share more about the postdoc (how you got it in the end) on your blog! I'm in that position now and wondering how to get one without having the great publication record that some of my peers seem to have (I have one mediocre publication and hopefully another one to come from the PhD - again not high impact or anything). Any advice would be appreciated!